Ncaa '08 Proposed Football Rule Changes

[LAZER]

NCAA Committee Proposes Football Rules Changes

Written by Dave Ruthenberg

Saturday, February 16 2008

The NCAA Football Rules Committee met this past week and formulated several proposed rules changes that the Committee hopes will enhance player safety and improve the pace of play.

The proposed changes have been forwarded for consideration for approval by the NCAA's Playing Rules Oversight Panel which will meet next month. None of the proposed changes can go into effect without this additional level of approval.

One of the primary areas that the Rules Committee addressed was in the area of head-down and helmet-to-helmet contact. To further player safety, the Committee has proposed adjusted wording in these areas, designed to give game officials better guidance in assessing penalties for what it considers dangerous contact.

"The committee is giving our game officials more tools to penalize potentially dangerous contact," said Rogers Redding, coordinator of officials for the Southeastern Conference. "The committee is addressing players that use the crown of their helmet and players that target defenseless opponents when making contact above the shoulders," he added.

The Committee has also proposed a new rule making horse-collar tackles illegal. The NFL recently made such tackles illegal but no such prohibition on horse-collar tackles exists currently in the collegiate game. The new rule would prohibit a player from grabbing the inside back collar of the shoulder pads or jersey, or the inside collar of the side of the shoulder pads or jersey and immediately pulling the runner down.

Additional rule changes designed to increase the pace of play have also been proposed. Last season the average length of a collegiate football game was 3 hours and 22 minutes, compared to 3 hours and 7 minutes in 2006.

In an effort to speed up play, the Rules Committee has proposed a 40/25-second play clock. Essentially what this would mean is that the offensive team would have 40 seconds to snap the ball after it is declared dead. The only exception would be after a change of possession or the clock is stopped due to injury. In those instances, the offensive team would have 25 seconds to snap the ball after the official signals the end of the timeout.

Additionally, the Committee has proposed a rule change designed to speed up the pace of play concerning when the clock is restarted after a player goes out of bounds. The new rule would dictate that the game clock would re-start on the referee's whistle as opposed to the snap of the ball on the next play, except in the last two minutes of each half.

Michael Clark, chairman of the NCAA Rules Committee and head coach at Division III Bridgewater (Virginia) College, indicated that "This is part of the continuing efforts to maintain a reasonable length of games and create a consistent pace of play at all levels," in discussing the new timing changes.

Additional rule changes recommended by the committee:

**In the rules relating to instant replay, plays where a fumble leads to an immediate recovery may be reviewed.

**Also regarding replay, a coach that challenges a play and is successful will retain the right to challenge one more time for a maximum of two challenges per half.

**When a kickoff goes out of bounds, the receiving team may accept the ball at the 40-yard line instead of the 35-yard line.

**The incidental five-yard face make penalty has been removed. All face mask fouls (defined as pulling, twisting, or turning of the face mask) will result in a 15-yard penalty.

**A 5-yard penalty will be assessed for sideline crowding. The warning has been eliminated.

[UNTflyer]

Not many significant rule changes. I like the 5-yard penalty for sideline crowding. It puts the officials in a dangerous position when they have no room to run.

I do NOT like the horse-collar rule. We are essentially penalizing players for tackling. You can't grab their shoulder pads to pull them down from behind, but you can grab their jersey (illegal in the NFL) or hair (Ricky was brought down by his hair several times)... that doesn't make sense if the result of the play is that they fall backward in a twisting motion with their legs trapped under their weight. Am I missing something on this rule?

[Green Crazy]

no problem with the horse collar rule...if your close enough to do it then your close enough to wrap the player up around the waist to bring them down.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---Games have gotten a lot longer.... this is happening because so many teams have gone to emphasizing a passing offense.... where the clock stops at incompletions, and when running out of bounds which happens a lot on passing plays.. TxTech games are often over 4 hours now, especially when facing a team that also passes a lot. The clock stoppage due to passing also adds a lot of plays to a game as well and makes the scores get higher because of the extra time. It partially explains my Tech scores are so high and Dodge ones as well. The 40 second rule should shorten the game some. The DD type of offense when facing teams of similiar mind-set were well under 3 hours.....Sounds good to me

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

no problem with the horse collar rule...if your close enough to do it then your close enough to wrap the player up around the waist to bring them down.

--I agree it is a good rule... but I think the other guy is wrong about Jersey grabbingin the NFL... I think that is acceptable in the NFL. In the cases where only the jersey is held the player has enough freedom of motion to usually twist about some and is not so easily injured...unlike when the pads are held. I am not so sure he can always wrap them up but some things just should not be done. The game is dangerous enough as it is.

[filmerj]

Wont adding more challenges and reviews slow the game down? I think if they do this they need a clock on it.

[AnotherEagleFan]

I'm going to go ahead and say that I do not like the 5 yard penalty for crowding without a warning. I have seen rules like this make or break a game especially with the AQ teams. There should be a warning. I have seen Southern Miss get a warning with the players well off of the playing field just to see the penalty come while the ball was inside the 5. Yes! I do think that the refs favor the bigger schools from time to time.

[LongJim]

I'm going to go ahead and say that I do not like the 5 yard penalty for crowding without a warning. I have seen rules like this make or break a game especially with the AQ teams. There should be a warning. I have seen Southern Miss get a warning with the players well off of the playing field just to see the penalty come while the ball was inside the 5. Yes! I do think that the refs favor the bigger schools from time to time.

I will disagree and say I like this change.

This rule is hardly ever enforced, and needs to be. An official is going to get severely hurt (again) if it is not taken seriously.

[TheTastyGreek]

Not many significant rule changes. I like the 5-yard penalty for sideline crowding. It puts the officials in a dangerous position when they have no room to run.

I do NOT like the horse-collar rule. We are essentially penalizing players for tackling. You can't grab their shoulder pads to pull them down from behind, but you can grab their jersey (illegal in the NFL) or hair (Ricky was brought down by his hair several times)... that doesn't make sense if the result of the play is that they fall backward in a twisting motion with their legs trapped under their weight. Am I missing something on this rule?

I'm okay with the horse collar rule.

I see it as a logical extension of the face mask rule. When you tackle someone by using that part of their uniform, you expose them to exceptional and unnecessary risk of injury.

If the ballcarrier gets past you, you just have to tackle them with momentum going forward, not rip them to the ground backwards.

[MeanMag]

Horse collar rule is a good one. Jersey grabbing is allowed in the NFL. Just not around the collar... Hair is okay to pull on to. Cut your damn hair if you dont want someone pulling on it. I've never understood how we could allow players to be trained for 4 years to perform horse collars when at the next level it isn't allowed.

Length of games...

how come no one has ever proposed not stopping the clock on first downs? Also, adding a time limit to reviews is pointless. Getting the call right is all that matters at that point. The clock would expire and if the ref isn't done then oh well? How would that work? What about TV timeouts? How much does having a tv presentation lengthen the game?

Sideline Rule

They should call this the Mac Brown's Stepson Rule. It is being proposed because of numbnuts like him ON THE FIELD DURING A PLAY. The ref had no ida who was a player and who wasn't. This also happened last year in a game, where a receiver was forced out of bounds and an official threw a flag because he thought he came off the sideline. Good Rule.

[greenminer]

Wont adding more challenges and reviews slow the game down? I think if they do this they need a clock on it.

They never said they wanted to shorten game time. It is "Improve the pace of play".

Heck, make halftime longer. Give people enough time to do their business and then they have time to see their favorite band

[GreenTiger_OriginalAcct]

I will disagree and say I like this change.

This rule is hardly ever enforced, and needs to be. An official is going to get severely hurt (again) if it is not taken seriously.

I used to ref high school ball and by the time I officially gave a warning, I had already talked with the coach twice about the sidelines area. The officials are usually communicating with the bench area about this through out the game so eliminating the warning is really not that serious.